The former Scotland captain, Christian Dailly, was on hand to celebrate the start of a huge summer of sport for his nation, when he visited the Coral betting shop on West Nile Street in Glasgow on Monday afternoon.
Dailly, who played for his country on 67 occasions, including at the 1998 World Cup, and was captain 12 times, made the surprise visit to the shop with the trophy for this Saturday’s Coral Scottish Grand National, one of the highlights of the racing calendar and the fourth biggest betting race of the entire year in the big race sponsor’s shops across the UK.
Dailly spent several hours meeting and chatting to customers and staff, sharing his memories of the 1998 World Cup – the last time Scotland took part in the tournament – as well as looking forward to Scotland’s participation in this summer’s action in USA, Canada and Mexico.
“This weekend’s Coral Scottish Grand National festival at Ayr racecourse kicks-off what promises to be a huge summer of sport for Scotland, the feature race itself is behind only the Grand National, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Derby in terms of the highest turnover races of the entire year, and the current favourite is King Of Answers, who would be a very popular winner for the Kinross-based trainers Lucinda Russell and Michael Scudamore,” said Coral’s David Stevens.
“To celebrate this year’s race, and Scotland’s first World Cup campaign for 28 years, we were delighted to welcome Christian Dailly to our shop in Glasgow, he knows what it means to represent his nation at the biggest tournament of all, and we hope the customers enjoyed meeting one of Scotland’s most-capped players,” added Stevens.
Christian Dailly said: “Playing for my country in the World Cup in 1998 was without doubt the greatest achievement of my career, and I know those players representing Scotland in this summer’s tournament are going to experience something they will never forget.”
“Before the World Cup starts, I’m looking forward to being at Ayr for Scotland’s biggest race on Saturday, it was great to get my hands on the Coral Scottish Grand National trophy this week, let’s hope the footballers can get their hands on a trophy in July!”
